The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 10, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 04, 1999
Jianmin Oiao, Fremont, CA (US);
James Nulty, San Jose, CA (US);
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
According to one embodiment (,), a method of forming contacts may include forming structures that include sidewalls (,). A first insulating layer can be deposited (,). A second insulating layer can then be deposited over the first insulating layer (,). The second insulating layer can be patterned to form a hard etch mask (,). Contact holes can be etched through the second insulating layer using the hard etch mask as a contact hole etch mask (,). A second insulating layer can have a dielectric constant that is low with respect to other hard etch mask materials, such as silicon nitride. A hard etch mask formed from a second insulating layer can result in contact holes having lower aspect ratios than conventional approaches.